'Missed chances' to help boy

A serious case review into the death of four-year-old Daniel Pelka found repeated failures by agencies set up to safeguard children's welfare but concluded nobody could have predicted his death at the hands of an abusive mother her partner.

Prior to Daniel Pelka's death in March 2012, the four-year-old came in contact with a number of professionals who either noticed or treated him for injuries, or saw changes in his weight and eating behaviour.

The Serious Case Review found there were a number of opportunities to protect Daniel that were missed:

Children's Minister Edward Timpson has ruled out Government support for a so-called "Daniel's Law" that would place a legal duty on social workers, doctors and school teachers to report child abuse.

Mr Timpson has instead written to the Coventry Safeguarding Children Board, which published today's report, urging them to "dig deeper" into the reasons why mistakes were made in the case of Daniel Pelka.

Children's Minister Edward Timpson. Credit: ITV News

He said: "Mandatory reporting is not the answer. Guidance is already crystal clear that professionals should refer immediately to social care when they are concerned about a child.

"Other countries have tried mandatory reporting and there is no evidence to show that it is a better system for protecting children. In fact there is evidence to show it can make children less safe."

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The Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust has looked at "a number of actions" that it needed to take following the death of four-year-old Daniel Pelka, medical director Dr Sharon Binyon said.

Dr Binyon told ITV News: "We know that the number of health visitors in Coventry was one of the lowest in the country, so we have been working with NHS England.

"Since the time of Daniel's death we have doubled the number of health visitors and they will be trebled by 2015."

The Trust has also implemented a new system "whereby when there is a child in the house and domestic violence is reported then automatic reporting goes to school nurses and health visitors as appropriate, but it's also kept electronically on their records."

Prof Munro, who conducted a review into high-profile abuse cases including the death of Baby P, said the new report "tells you what happened, but it gives you very little idea of why".

She continued: "These were clearly professionals who were concerned about Daniel, they were very actively trying to help him and they failed.

"And I don't get a sense from the review of why they failed - what it looked like, how they were misled, why they didn't see the sadistic torture that was going on - so I find I cannot clearly see what lessons you can draw from it."

The chair of the Coventry Safeguarding Children Board, which published the Serious Case Review into Daniel Pelka's death, said it found there were "missed opportunities" and "other things should and could have been done".

Amy Weir told Daybreak, "However, it is not the purpose of this review to identify who was responsible, or what could have been done differently by particular individuals."

Gill Mulhall, the current headteacher of the school Daniel Pelka attended, said if his teachers had been aware of his suffering then they would have "acted very differently".

Ms Mulhall said: "What was proven in the criminal trial is that his mother was a convincing manipulator who fooled many professional bodies over a long period of time by producing a convincing act as a caring parent.

"If we had been aware of the bigger picture of Daniel's life, or had any doubts about his mother, then we would of course have acted very differently.

"What we want to see now are changes where schools are aware of concerns from other agencies which affect our pupils to try and ensure that nothing can ever happen again."